DAY 16 and 17: My last days in Bungoma

Woke up this morning to a bird a hadn't seen yet. I studied it and went to look it up in Connor's Audubon Society Field Guide to African Wildlife and found out it was a Speckled Mousebird. I then realized that I am totally that nerd Dave was talking about in Kakamega that gets a kick out of watching and identifying birds. I entirely blame my parents for this. In a good way.

Today I will buy my bus ticket back to Nairobi and go back out to the construction site to check out the progress.

Last night I brought Dave with me over to Esther's house and we met the whole family. Dave talked to the father, Jacob, for a long time. Jacob is a math teacher in a high school in Bungoma. Adelaide, his wife, called me into the kitchen so I could watch how they made the chicken. When I got in there it had just been freshly killed and she put it in a bucket. Esther pulled boiling water over it and then the two sisters started plucking the chicken from end to end, even holding the decapitated head in their hand and plucking that as well. Next they lightly grill it over a barbecue-style fire just holding it on there for a few seconds at a time. Adelaide then set to cutting the chicken apart using a kitchen knife. You can tell she has done this many times before.

All while this is happening I am sitting right next to where the other chickens come to roost at night in a little covered area right in the kitchen. Seems kinda ironic that they are just sitting there and watching their other chicken friend be prepared for dinner.

The chicken is then put into a stew of tomatoes and onions and cooks for a bit. In the meantime Dave and I drank lots of chai, chatted with the family about our different cultures, and ate some Wonderbread with butter.

Earlier in the day Esther showed me how to make chapati. You mix a special wheat flour with water and make a dough out of it that she rolled out into a pizza like circle. That goes onto an iron dish that sits on top of that same wood fire. She spoons oil onto it and flips it a few times as it cooks.

So now, I have officially ate the freshest, best chicken, I think I will ever eat in my lifetime. I helped myself to two pieces of chapati to soak up more of the broth. Adelaide and Jacob walked us all of the way home in the dark. They are such kind people. Esther and she both told me many times they would pray that I would come back to Kenya and visit them. Esther is now my friend on Facebook.